Kerry Compares Boston Bombing Victims to Terror Flotilla Crew

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the man Barack Obama installed as Secretary of State, the former Senator from Massachusetts and onetime Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry:

QUESTION: Hi, Mr. Secretary. Thanks for this opportunity. You talked about the importance of a rapprochement between Turkey and Israel, and I wanted to ask you about the operational benefits of that – when we will see them. And if you could also comment on reports in the Sunday Times that Israel is discussing with Turkey placing a base outside of Ankara to give them the capability to reach Iran if need be, if you could comment or confirm. Thanks.

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SECRETARY KERRY: Well, I’m not going to comment on the latter, no. Number one, I don’t know enough about it to comment beyond public accounts; and number two, I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to comment on their as-yet-unannounced or perhaps discussed or not discussed initiatives. So I’m not going to comment on that.

With respect to the importance of these steps and where they’re going – I think that’s your question – Turkey – well, tomorrow there’s a meeting and they have an ability to sort of take the next step or lay the groundwork to take the next step. Prime Minister Erdogan is coming to visit Washington in May, in the middle of May. That will be an important next step in this ongoing dialogue. We would like to see us get to a point where we are moving on improving the situation in Gaza, which was part of the agreement that we’re going to try to make sure the goods are moving and life on the ground can improve, which we would like to see happen – all of us, Israel included – and where we are also completing the task of moving to full diplomatic relations between the countries, which would be beneficial to everybody.

I think Turkey is working in very good faith to get there. I know it’s an emotional issue with some people. I particularly say to the families of people who were lost in the incident we understand these tragedies completely and we sympathize with them. And nobody – I mean, I have just been through the week of Boston and I have deep feelings for what happens when you have violence and something happens and you lose people that are near and dear to you. It affects a community, it affects a country. We’re very sensitive to that.